The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-03-23
TO Save Their Lives.

| desire to offer for sale, through the
advertising columns of your magazine,
writes Bill Nye to the Northeastern
Miller, the large and prolific wheat
growing lands connected with my
estates. My object in selling these lands
is TO get them into the hands of some
one who has more means than | have.
The lands are in high state of cultiva-
ton, but in order to get the best results
more machinery is needed next year
than feel like purchasing. We need
two new sulky-plows on the place,
two seeders, new fanning-mill,
thresher with traction engine, three
reapers with binders, a cut-worm eradi-
Gator, curculo buster, squash-bug
arrestor, a Hess!an fly detector, chinch-
bug crusher, a pOtatO-bug assassination
and steam gopher stabber. When
started in to farm 1 sowed sixty acres
to wheat, ten acres to oats, and planted
some vegetables. Joint-worms took
the grain, cabbage-worms paralyzed
the kraut orchard, cut-worms took the
tomatoes and melons, apple-worms de-
voured my choice Siberian crab-apples,
and a tape-worm carried off my hired
man. l then began to see "why our
boys leave the farm" They do it to
save their lives. 1 next resolved to
abandon the vegetables and devote my
valuable space to grain.
| bought new team, one member of
which was " cribber," while the other
had the "thumps." Before that l did
not know that thumps" was a con-
tagious disease outside of the prize
ring. That fall l had $50 bushels of
No. wheat, worth forty-two cents in
Minneapolis, a COW that had hollow
horn so that | had to be up half the
night with her, horse that had the
thumps SO that he couldn't take long
breath, and cribber that would catch
hold of hitching-post and suck in so
much atmosphere that everybody in our
county gasped for breath. l said to
myself, "This is the reason that boys
leave the farm and go away to bust
ness college, where they learn to make
penmanship birds and capitals with side
whiskers on them"
The past season l decided to grow
wheat on my estate. In June the crop
looked well, but in July, while l was
engaged one day in sharing gophers
with pickerel line, 1 discovered
several small dappled bugs, about three
twentieths of an inch in length, playing
81 spy" in the wheat. They had a
peculiar aroma which they carried with
them to shed in case they got stepped
on. carried few of these bugs to a
friend of mine who had been in the
farming business all his life and asked
him what they were. He said they
were chinch-bugs, and that by and by
mould no Of tha,, 10 70
right. Every little while female chinch-
bug would come cackling off the nest,
and you could ind 500 eggs there as
soon as she went away. If | watched
her carefully with glass | noticed
that she would wander about few
minutes, then suddenly she would re-
member something and go back to the
nest, where she would lay 500 more
eggs. In this way it did not take long
to accumulate enough chinch-bugs SC
that could supply those who had been
less fortunate. So | told the other
farmers that they could come over any
time and help themselves. l allowed
them to take the young bugs, or eggs
, enough to set their own bugs, just as
, they thought best.
| In July the chinch- bugs were all
thrifty and the wheat was all ripe. Ii
was too early to thrash, so / stacked
my wheat. 1t rained last week with
great severity. Yesterday l went out
to see my stacks. i can do most any
other manual work, but am not good
stacker. The man who examined the
stacks said that he was surprised that
; any rain fell elsewhere. 1t looked to
him as though these stacks had gone
over the Northwest and secured all
there was. But he consoled me good
deal, after all. He said it was really nc
= loss, for the grain itself was nothing
! but straw with little dash of bran in
= it. My wheat lands are now for sale.
| could farm them myself if felt able, bu
e a man, in order to farm them success
. fully, must have an income from othel
| sources. In order to succeed in farm
| ing, a young man should marry ricf
4 and play good game of poker.